Learning Paths
Each learning path is one chapter: a guided route through a topic, one small course at a time. Pick a class to see its chapters in order.
Recently added chapters
Chapter 1
Cell Structure and Organelles, Transport Across the Cell Membrane
You are made of cells, and so is a tree and a mushroom. What is inside one cell? How does it eat, breathe and keep its shape? In this chapter we look at the cell, its parts and the jobs of the parts. Then we see how water and food move in and out. We use Python to measure cells and to watch particles spread.
2 courses
Chapter 2Contains Standard content
Plant Tissues, Animal Tissues
A single cell can do every job, but your body has trillions of cells, and they share the work. Cells of one kind that work together form a tissue. In this chapter we meet the tissues of plants, which grow, store food, give strength and carry water. Then we meet the tissues of animals, which cover the body, join its parts, move it and carry messages. We use Python to count, measure and compare.
3 courses
Chapter 3
Plant and Animal Kingdoms, Classification of Living Organisms
There are millions of kinds of living things, from bacteria that you cannot see to blue whales as long as a ship. How do biologists keep track of them all? In this chapter we learn how living things are sorted into groups, how each one gets its two-part scientific name, and what the five kingdoms are. Then we meet the main groups of plants and animals, one by one. We use Python to build keys and to measure diversity.
2 courses
Chapter 4
Nutrition, Respiration, Transport in Living Organisms, Digestive System, Photosynthesis, Respiratory System, Excretion, Excretory System, Circulatory System
A plant stands still in the sun, and a dog runs after a ball. Both are alive because their cells keep working, day and night. In this chapter you see how living things get their food, how they release energy from it, how they carry materials around the body, and how they remove their wastes. You follow a bite of food through your own body, count breaths and heartbeats, and use Python with real numbers about the body.
3 courses
Chapter 5
Nervous System and Sense Organs, Plant Hormones and Movements, Hormones and the Endocrine System
You pull your hand away from a hot pan before you even think about it. A plant on a windowsill bends towards the light. Both are living things responding to a change around them. In this chapter you see how nerves carry messages in animals, how a reflex works, what the parts of the brain do, how plants respond without nerves, and how hormones control growth in plants and animals. Python helps you time reflexes and model hormone levels.
2 courses
Chapter 6
Reproduction in Plants, Human Reproduction, Heredity and Inheritance
A potato sprouts new plants from its eyes, a Hydra grows a bud that breaks away, and a flower turns into a fruit full of seeds. Living things make more of their own kind in many ways. In this chapter you see why copies are never quite exact, how single-celled organisms and plants reproduce on their own, how flowers reproduce sexually, and how reproduction works in human beings, with a look at reproductive health. Python helps you count how fast a population of cells can grow.
2 courses
Chapter 1
Rational and Irrational Numbers, Exponents and Radicals
You have counted with 1, 2, 3, and you have used fractions and decimals. Are there numbers that are neither? Yes. The length of the diagonal of a square with a side of 1 is one of them, and no fraction can write it. In this chapter we sort the numbers into families, we meet the irrational numbers, and we place every real number on the number line. Then we learn how to add, multiply and rationalise them, and how to work with fractional powers. We use Python to see the digits.
2 courses
Chapter 2
Divisibility, HCF and LCM, Rational and Irrational Numbers
Every whole number above 1 is built from primes in exactly one way. This one fact finds the HCF and the LCM of any numbers, and it proves that a number such as the square root of 2 can never be written as a fraction. In this chapter you break numbers into primes, solve problems about bells, tiles and buses with the HCF and the LCM, and learn how to prove that a number is irrational. Python checks your work and finds patterns in thousands of numbers.
2 courses
Chapter 3Contains Standard content
Polynomials, Algebraic Identities and Factorisation
The cost of a taxi, the height of a thrown ball and the area of a garden can all be written with expressions such as x² + 3x + 2. These expressions are called polynomials. In this chapter we learn what they are, how to find the numbers that make them zero, and how to split them into smaller factors. We also learn the identities that make long multiplications short. We use Python to calculate values and to check our factors.
3 courses
Chapter 4Contains Standard content
Quadratic Equations, Polynomials
A ball thrown up comes down again, and a garden of a given area has a length that you can find. Both lead to an equation with a squared term: a quadratic equation. In this chapter you learn to recognise such equations, to solve them by factorising, by completing the square and with the quadratic formula, and to tell from the discriminant how many roots there are. Python solves and checks equations by the hundred.
3 courses
Chapter 5
Sequences and Series
A taxi fare that rises by the same amount every kilometre, the seats in rows that grow by two, a savings plan that adds the same sum each month: each is a list of numbers with a common difference. In this chapter you learn to spot an arithmetic progression, find any of its terms, and add up many terms at once with a formula. Python lists the terms and checks your formulas in a moment.
2 courses
Chapter 6
The Cartesian Plane, Distance, Midpoint and Section Formulae
How does a map tell you exactly where a place is? How does a game know where a character stands on the screen? In both cases, two numbers fix a position. In this chapter we learn how two number lines make a plane, how to name and plot any point on it, and then how to find the distance between two points, the midpoint of a line and the point that divides a line in a given ratio. We use Python to plot points and to check our calculations.
2 courses